HAMMOND SNUB TO HIGH STREET
He refuses to overhaul toxic tax killing local shops
PHILIP Hammond was accused of betraying struggling high street retailers yesterday after he refused to launch an urgent overhaul of business rates.
The Chancellor insisted there will be no imminent change despite warnings the tax is killing off firms.
In a letter to MPs, he said he would not examine the issue until he has considered reforming other corporate taxes.
Around 50,000 retail jobs have already been lost since the start of the year, and about 61,000 stores have shut in the past five years. The Chancellor’s stance was described by former Wickes and Iceland boss Bill Grimsey – the author of a report on saving town centres – as ‘divorced from reality’. It came as: The chief executive of fashion firm Superdry backed the Mail’s Save Our High Streets campaign and called for ministers to act. MPs said they are planning an investigation into whether rates are fit for purpose. Bosses at leading chain Primark said many firms were ’overburdened’ with taxes. Major retailers in London’s West End
THE Mail visited Philip Hammond’s constituency yesterday to see what they thought of the Chancellor’s attitude towards small businesses.
In Weybridge, Surrey, where Mr Hammond was voted into office in May 1997, local businesses laid bare the daily struggle they face and hit out at their MP over his lack of help.
LIVELIHOOD AT STAKE
SUE Bridger, 59, has run cafe French Fancy’s with daughter Tashana French after they built it from scratch three years ago.
But spiralling costs are already threatening to put them out of business like so many before them.
Mrs Bridger, who has lived in Weybridge for around 20 years, says the high street is a shadow of its former self. ‘It used to be a busy town,’ she said. ‘There were shops for the rich and shops for the poor. Now the wealthy just get in their taxis to Kensington to do their shopping. People have been coming in here asking me where all the shops have gone.’
Incredibly, Mrs Bridger wasn’t aware that Mr Hammond – the man with the power to save the high street – is her MP. ‘I never see him around. If he did come down perhaps he would realise what a mess the place is,’ she said.
Business rates on her shop have risen from £10,000 to £11,500 since April, having already increased from £9,000 in 2016. ‘Independent shops are community institutions,’ she said. ‘I like the fact that an 80-year-old grandmother can come in for some company as well as a coffee. If we had to close, that is what I would miss the most. ‘This is our livelihood at stake.’ Meanwhile, Inci Malik says spiralling costs have seen her forced to lay off staff at artisan cafe Aromas.
Her business rates have soared year- on- year, increasing from £13,329 to £14,478 for 2017-2018 after they started at £11,000 when she moved to the town in 2015. The rateable value of the property has risen from £24,000 to £32,750 in that time.
Business rates are now equivalent to 6 per cent of her turnover.
The 42-year-old said: ‘It is inevitable that we will go out of business if this keeps up. Last year I had to lay off four of my full-time staff. It was upsetting to do. I am now working seven days a week.’
Miss Malik urged the Chancellor to stop increasing rates for small shops and focus on ending tax avoidance by large corporations.
She said: ‘ There’s a Starbucks next door – it’s unfair they get an easy ride, when people like us who are part of the community get hit.’
HE DOESN’T CARE
RAJ Patel said Mr Hammond was not interested in the plight of small businesses in his constituency.
Mr Patel, who owns Weybridge News, said he was ‘unsurprised’ by his MP’s ‘negative’ attitude.
‘I had a meeting with him about four years ago,’ he said. ‘He didn’t seem to be very clued up about our situation, nor did he seem particularly interested.
‘Most of the time he is here, he is just hanging around outside Waitrose in the run-up to an election.’
The 48-year-old, who has run the newsagents with his 46-year- old wife Jay for a decade, said he has faced crippling business rate increases.
‘These rates are unfair when you compare them to shops that are not on the high street,’ he said. ‘Some of those are much bigger than ours, but they don’t have to pay anywhere near as much.’
He said fewer customers and business closures had created a vicious cycle of decline.
‘A lot have already moved out, which has been bad for us because not as many people come to the town any more.
‘It has been in steady decline. It is becoming a bit of a ghost town.’
WE’LL CUT STAFF
HUSBAND and wife Ali and Elena Vahedi say rocketing rates will force them to cut staff at their Italian restaurant.
Their restaurant Osso Buco has been hit with a 67 per cent increase in its rateable value, from £44,500 to £74,000.
Since April last year, they have had to find an extra £3,500 a year after their annual business rates increased to £25,683 from about £22,000.
Mr Vahedi, who has owned the restaurant for seven years, said they will have no choice but to cut jobs and that business rates threatened to ‘destroy’ the high street.
He said: ‘It will be a big problem, the Government and the council are squeezing us from every angle.
‘We can’t cut wages and we can’t put prices up or we will lose customers. So the only way we can get that extra money is to employ less staff and cut jobs.’
The 52-year-old added: ‘It shows the Government are out of touch. They don’t seem to understand every penny counts, even a 1 per cent rise has a huge effect.’
Mr Vahedi called on Mr Hammond to do more to protect small businesses in his constituency.
‘We are looking at a future when there will not be a single independent business left in Weybridge,’ he warned.
LAST NAIL IN COFFIN
EVE Moreve, who owns a women’s fashion store, said soaring rates could be the ‘ final nail in the coffin’ for independent shops in the town. The rateable value of Mrs Moreve’s shop,
Ben Vestito, has increased from £11,250 to £15,750, taking it above the business rates threshold and meaning she will have to start paying annual rates of £5,831.
‘It’s ridiculous,’ she said. ‘ high streets everywhere are dying as it is and for many shops this will be the final nail in the coffin.
‘I don’t think Philip hammond has any interest in his local constituency. It seems like the Government want every small business to close.
everything they do is geared towards helping big businesses. It’s just wrong. It doesn’t make any sense.’